Jane Robbins and Emmett McGroarty sent out an article, part of which is in this blog post.

In their article they point out that DeVos recommends making all learning individualized, with each student in front of a computer, possibly at home.

Jane and Emmett point out that: “so-called personalized learning is actually depersonalized, computerized training rather than genuine education.”

Robbins and McGroarty suggest Betsy DeVos improve education by:

“(1) freeing the states from all federal mandates to the extent she can under the law; (2) working with Congress to revise ESSA to eliminate all mandates; and (3) creating a workable plan to shut down her department.” (The U.S. Department of Education)

Editorial comment – more needs to be done:

There also needs to be a change in the content of what is taught in schools, and how students are being taught in schools — changing from Type #2 education, and returning to Type #1 education. [Type #1 and Type #2 education are discussed on the Home Page of this website, and in blogs: 0005, 0091, and 0247]

Teachers need to be taught to teach, rather than being trained and forced to be facilitators and baby-sitters, spying and reporting on students, parents and other teachers.

ESSA didn’t change some of what was already going on in many schools, but since it became federal law in December 2015, it has been officially forcing every school to comply.

Betsy DeVos’ American Enterprise Institute (AEI) speech linked in full

You can read here the full transcript of the speech U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos gave on January 16, 2018, at an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) conference, “Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned.”Continue reading →

An article below, printed in The Boston Herald, reports more sad evidence revealing that people who supported Common Core were absolutely wrong in thinking that Common Core was something good for our country. People fell for the Common Core talking points that it was only a vague standard, and not curriculum — with a carrot of “free” money from the government.

To find other blog pieces on Common Core on this site, search above next to the Spyglass or in the Table f Contents: “Bracken” “Dangers of Common Core” “Standardize” or “Peg Luksik.”

A 2013 Common Core Debate

A 2013 Common Core debate is linked in blog 0089_Steamboat Institute Freedom Conference_Dabate with Larua Boggs for Common Core, and Jim Stergios against Common Core (a transcript of the debate is in blog 0089).

An excerpt from the article below:

“These standards rely on process- and skills-based ideas, which brush aside knowledge of Western and English literary traditions,” remarked one of the Pioneer analysts, Emory University English professor Mark Bauerlein.

“Instead, the new-age standards offer a heaping serving of multiculturalism, plus the preposterous notion of 21st century mathematics that renders obsolete, principles validated centuries ago. This is how the dumbing-down so beloved by social levelers proceeds.”

Common Core (centralized control of education) continues to be cemented into the fabric of education in the United States.

Two excerpts from the article below:

The latest concern is the appointment by President Trump of “Frank Brogan, a longtime Bush ally from Florida.” “Does this move snuff out the last hope that Trump will keep his campaign promises to stop federal support of Common Core and return control over education to the states and the people?”

“Team Jeb! Grows Bigger and Stronger at U.S. Department of Education”
by jane robbins

Team Jeb! grows bigger and stronger at the U.S. Department of Education (USED). The key position of assistant secretary of education for elementary and secondary education has gone to Frank Brogan, a longtime Bush ally from Florida. We don’t know who recommended Brogan, but we do know who appointed him – President Trump. Does this move snuff out the last hope that Trump will keep his campaign promises to stop federal support of Common Core and return control over education to the states and the people?

As soon as Trump appointed Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary, concern surfaced about her history of supporting the one education policy that Trump railed against during the campaign: the Common Core national standards (though she backtracked, sort of, when appointed). DeVos also apparently embraced the Bush worldview on education – centralized control with benefits distributed to various corporate and other stakeholders. Her strong and longstanding ties to Team Bush include donating to and serving on the board of Jeb’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, which pushes policies such as so-called competency-based education, digital training, increased data-collection on students, and government preschool.

All of these policies were favored by the Obama education establishment as well (the only significant difference between Obama and Bush on education issues concerns school choice). DeVos’s selection thus signaled a continuation of most policies of the last eight years.

Unsurprisingly, DeVos has now surrounded herselfnot with representatives of the pro-constitutionalist, anti-Common Core wing of education but with Bush acolytes such as Carlos Muniz as USED general counsel. But the USED position of most interest to parent activists throughout the country — assistant secretary for K-12 education – remained to be filled. Giving that job to a proven anti-Common Core warrior would rekindle hope for some change in USED’s trajectory. But Trump gave the job to Frank Brogan.Continue reading →

Why keep supporting public education? People controlling content of curriculum continue to totally ignore parents, teachers, and everyone who says Common Core and much that has been leading up to it, is destroying lives.

Public Education (which influences much of private and religious education) keeps being dumbed down.

Read Jenni White’s article below, which points out that those behind Common Core say they are complying with wishes of parents, etc., but they never deviate from their destructive course. They just give lip service.

CCSS is a set of national standards dictating what students should know at the end of each grade level.

“Of the states that opted in after the standards were introduced in 2010—45 plus the District of Columbia—only eight have moved to repeal the standards, largely due to political pressure from those who saw Common Core as infringing on local control, according to Abt Associates, a research and consulting firm,” AP reported in September 2017.

Though 29 of the original 46 adopter states have abandoned or revised the Common Core State Standards in response to political and parental pushback, the influence remains.From the first attempt to repeal and replace CCSS by Indiana in 2014 to the most recent attempt in New York, activists and analysts describe the replacement standards as little more than a simple rebrand of Common Core, allegations supported by research published earlier this year.Continue reading →

Betsy DeVos, US Secretary of the Department of Education, will be guest speaker at Jeb Bush’s upcoming summit for his Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE). It is an organization that was started in 2007. It has been financially supported by DeVos and her husband for most years since its beginnings — and she has been on its board of directors.

Notice the people are who are sponsoring the FEE event. Most of them are what some people would call globalists — and they have consistently been heavy supporters of Common Core, FEE, and the federal and international control of education.

The College Board is also a supporter of the event. David Coleman, president of the College Board, is a main architect of Common Core. See Blog 0074 which has a YouTube of “Common Core: Subversive Threat to Education. Watch Karen Bracken’s video and read a transcript of of it. The presentation tells about Coleman’s role in the College Board, AP, SAT, ACT, Common Core. Watching the video (or reading the transcript) you can learn not only about Coleman, but also about other sponsors of this FEE event.

““Too many of the people selected for K-12 policy can be expected to continue the trajectory launched by progressive educators a century ago and reaching new heights under Obama and his secretaries,” she [Dr. Susan Berry] asserts.… ”

Dr. Bill Bennett, secretary of education under President Ronald Reagan, told attendees at the Values Voter Summit Friday that President Donald Trump’s Cabinet is a “more conservative cabinet” than Reagan’s Cabinet was.

Bennett – now a radio host and author – specifically named current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos “my friend … who is fighting to empower parents,” as an example of conservatism, and defended her signature policy of school choice.

However, both Bennett and DeVos have come under fire from many conservative parents throughout America for their support – mentioned or otherwise – for the Common Core standards. The movement to eradicate the federally funded and supported Common Core has been led by one of the most significant “populist” grassroots efforts in decades.

As Breitbart News reported in 2014, Bennett drew the ire of anti-Common Core parents throughout the country after penning an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that made a “conservative case for Common Core.”

In his column, Bennett reiterated all the “talking points” of the pro-Common Core education establishment. His remarks – especially from one who served in Reagan’s Cabinet under a president who had desired to eliminate the U.S. Education Department (USED) – led to an uproar. Ultimately, Bennett admitted that public relations, lobbying, and business consulting firm DCI Group had paid him to write the column.Continue reading →

John Newkirk will be speaking October 17, 2017
at the High Country Republican Club (HCRC)

Next week, October 17, 2017, the HCRC’s special guest speaker will be John Newkirk. He was secretary of the Jefferson County, Colorado, School Board from 2013 – 2015.

He will be speaking about his September 20, 2017 article that was published in our local newspaper.

Time, cost and location of the HCRC meeting

The breakfast meeting will be at the Lewis Barn, in Evergreen. Cost of breakfast is $10. We begin our meeting at 7:00 a.m., and end around 8:00 a.m., or a little later. John will plan to stay for a few minutes to visit with people.

Author’s note: A number of legislators have contacted me about a suggested curriculum put forth by our new school superintendent — and I was not the only one surprised by its one-sidedness. My resulting Opinion column appeared in the Courier newspapers on 9/20/2017:

Newly-seated Jeffco Public Schools superintendent Jason Glass certainly wasted no time in thrusting our students into the political mosh pit. Continue reading →

Two years, one month, and one week ago, on July 28, 2015, I posted my first blog on this website.

A listing of all the posts can be found in the Table of Contents — each entry in the Table of Contents has a link to the corresponding blog post.

The Home Page shows what is wrong with education —
and the most critical thing to understand
in order to reverse the decline in education today – and to save our nation.

How do we fix the rapid decline in the education of too many people who do not graduate, and too many who do graduate from High Schools, Colleges and Universities?

It is not the condition of the buildings and other facilities — it is not the talent and good intentions and dedication of highly trained and competent teachers, administrators, counselors, teacher librarians, and all the support staff — it is not the freedom to choose the school a child attends (especially if all schools have Type #2 education) — it is not the amount of interest of the parents, or of the students — it is not computerizing all education and gathering more and more data on children, families, teachers, etc. — it is not simply emphasis on certain subjects like sports, music, art, science, technology, mathematics, language arts, reading, writing — it is not focus on becoming a global citizen — it is not in forcing all students to accept everything that students do and believe (unless they are politically incorrect). Standardizing all attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviors is not the answer, either — and training children to want to change their sexual identity will not improve education standards.

The thing that really matters is THE TYPE OF EDUCATION BEING TAUGHT IN THE CURRICULUM — THE CONTENT. Type #2 education is taking over our country — to the detriment of everyone. We need a shift back to Type #1.

The following document is well worth copying, from the pdf, or from the online link. It is important historical information for your files on Common Core. Donna Garner originally sent it out in 2015 — 35 pages of links to podcasts, videos, articles, YouTubes, commentaries, etc., over a four-year period. I can’t wait to dig into them myself. Many of then will be resources I have already studied – both new and review are important.

In this article, Donna Garner explains how the Charlottesville situation is a product of the Obama Administration’s anti-American Common Core agenda.

At the end of her article are some resources Donna Garner sent out that reveal some background behind the problems — going back to the Common Core curriculum, which supporters of Common Core wrongly kept insisting was not curriculum.

What do these groups all have in common? They are all products of our culture, one in which the majority of our nation’s K-16 students have been indoctrinated by the Obama administration’s anti-American Common Core and the leftwing professors who populate our colleges and universities. Aided by the Democrats and the leftist media, our nation is now “reaping the whirlwind.”